Admiral Khamthorn Pumhiran

Commander-in-Chief, Royal Thai Navy

The maritime security threat has changed from dealing primarily with international conflicts to the more complex circumstantial environments, which are politically, economically, and socially interrelated. These threats-maritime terrorism, transnational crimes, piracy, drug-trafficking, illegal immigration, human trafficking, illegal labor, and natural and environmental disasters-adversely affect national security. This gradually undermines and eventually destroys the favorable environment for greater prosperity and well-being of a nation and its people.

Thailand cannot deal with these issues alone, nor can any one country. The crucial factor to solving these problems lies in cooperation among every country in the region.

Given a due regard to the importance of cooperation, the Royal Thai Navy has continually developed and expanded its interaction with many allied countries, both bi- and multilateral. Thailand, for example, has cooperated in the joint maritime patrol and aerial reconnaissance in the Malacca Strait with Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. In addition, our nation has conducted joint maritime patrol with Malaysia, India, and Vietnam.

Domestically, the Thailand Maritime Enforcement Coordination Center, with the Royal Thai Navy as the core unit, was established to coordinate the efforts of other maritime governmental units and agencies. This provides consistency and avoids effort redundancy through sharing and exchanging information and persistent intelligence. We are confident that such combined efforts of internal and external cooperation will enhance our capability to address these problems effectively.

We would like to take this opportunity to call on each and every country to adopt this confidence-building measure to solve these problems together so that we can bring peace and security back to the region for years to come.

Admiral Dato Sri Abdul Aziz bin Hj Jaafar

Royal Malaysian Navy Chief

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) feels the issue of overlapping claims remains the most significant maritime security threat faced by our country. Malaysia is a maritime nation, and its maritime border is overlapped by six neighboring countries. One of the most important overlapping issues includes the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and Ambalat in the Sulawesi Sea. These disputes, which are generally the legacy of colonial history as well as the enactment of the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, enable littoral states to lay claim to waters and features that they hitherto had not. Consequently, the claimant countries are pushing their claim by having a military presence on their occupied territories or islets. The military presence in these areas indicates their willingness to resort to armed conflict, if required, to defend their claim. Such precarious situations can develop into crises if they are not addressed cautiously.

In fulfilling its tasks and role of safeguarding the Malaysian maritime interests, the RMN has taken various approaches to ensure the region remains stable and secure. Other than the political avenue taken by the government, the navys efforts include intensifying and enhancing its relations with other regional navies. These interactions have always been given appropriate importance and consideration. It is not limited to conducting regular inter-naval exercises but also conducting joint patrols in the disputed areas. In addition, the littoral-state navies of the Strait of Malacca-Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand-have worked together and successfully reduced the piracy threat in the strait. Ultimately, such cooperation and understanding has created a mutual trust and develops confidence-building among the participants.

The RMN is also pleased to note that it has promulgated the Preventions of Sea Incidents Guidelines among the neighboring navies, particularly that of Indonesia. The agreement is non-binding between the navies, but serves to guide the commanders on the scene to help avoid unnecessary incidents. Such guidelines have managed to keep tensions from escalating.

Though some disputes have been resolved amicably through mutual agreement and the International Court of Justice, others remain unresolved. At the same time, no serious security disruptions are anticipated in the immediate future. This includes the South China Sea, where the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was agreed upon, as well as cordial relations among the disputing states that help maintain and sustain a peaceful situation. Meanwhile, the RMN will continue to play its part by ensuring relations between the regional navies are kept harmonious, as we believe it is the best way to reduce the possibilities of conflict at sea.

Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno

Chief of Staff, Indonesian Navy

Indonesia is an archipelagic nation wedged between the continents of Asia and Australia and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with two-thirds of our nations territory water. Indonesia is at the crossroads of sea routes that have made our waters among the most important transportation lanes in the world. More than 100,000 vessels are estimated to pass through our territorial waters each year, with the straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Ombai handling the most traffic.

This situation poses significant threats in the form of territorial violations, forceful actions, and navigational transgressions. The major violations are those against territorial law and include: fishing, smuggling of illegal logs, immigration, drug trafficking, exploration and exploitation of natural resources, weapon smuggling, polluting the ecosystem and sea environment, and disposing toxic waste. Next in significance are criminal violations such as robbery and hijacking of ships at sea. Third among violations are those relating to navigation.

To deal with these threats and dangers, the Indonesian government designated government offices to act under the coordinating leadership of the Bakorkamla (Badan Koordinasi Keamanan Laut), or the Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board. The offices include the Indonesian Navy, the National Police, the Ministry of Transportation, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, the Directorate General of Immigration, the Ministry of Forestry, and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. The board is directly responsible to the president for the execution of its duties and assignments.

The Indonesian Navy is required by law to perform those duties and assignments of the Armed Forces, as related to the Naval Forces; uphold the law and safeguard the territorial waters of the nations jurisdiction in accordance with the domestic and international laws as ratified and in force; perform naval diplomacy tasks as assigned to the Navy in support of the nations foreign policy that has been established by the government; perform those assignments and duties of the Armed Forces related to building and developing the naval forces; and perform the empowerment of the sea defense area.

To those ends, the Indonesian Navy is conducting routine patrols on the seas and waters within the national jurisdiction of Indonesia and jointly coordinating sea patrols with its neighboring countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It is also coordinating with other offices and departments within the Bakorkamla, sharing intelligence information with nations bordering its national sea territories, and working with other friendly and allied countries, including the United States, in building the Integrated Maritime Surveillance System.

In principle, Indonesia offers an opportunity to all those nations using the sea lanes within the entire jurisdictional waters of Indonesia to cooperate and work together for our mutual benefit.

Vice Admiral R. H. Crane

Chief of Navy, Australia

Australia is an island nation in one of the most maritime-intensive domains in the world. Our ability to use the sea is central to the protection of Australias national interests. As a nation with no land borders, our dependence on the oceans, from both an economic and security perspective, has continued to develop. Our maritime-dominated strategic geography therefore presents us with unique challenges. We continue to rely on the maritime environment for economic prosperity, both for natural resources and as the fundamental highway for our trade. In economic terms, 99.7 percent of Australias international trade by volume and 75 percent by value was transported by sea in 2008. Australias continued reliance on the maritime environment will dominate our thinking.

One of the most significant maritime security challenges facing Australia is the strategic vulnerability of our maritime economic trade over extended sea lines of communication. The long distances over which Australia must secure its trade and raw resource base presents significant challenges to Australian naval forces in applying traditional concepts, such as sea control, in planning for any application of maritime power. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) seeks to secure our maritime trade base through application of both soft and hard power with our involvement in allied and regional naval engagement. This helps us develop understanding, transparency, and confidence building and, if required, gives us options to work with allies and friends in the considered and precise application of maritime power to exert sea control.

The RAN places a high priority on contributing to international efforts through active middle power diplomacy. One of the most important ways that we seek to promote mutual strategic interest is through a network of alliances. These alliances reinforce stable strategic frameworks in our immediate neighborhood as well as the wider Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions and assist in reducing potential threats. Australia continues to develop a network of naval partnerships as an important foundation for navies to work together if and when required to ensure potential threats to our maritime trade are mitigated.

Assisting in our regional engagement endeavors is our overt joint force approach, which provisions and sustains a balanced fleet postured through a two-ocean basing policy. As part of a joint force, the RAN is structured to apply maritime power, when required, to maintain freedom of navigation thereby preserve the integrity of sea-lanes vital to Australia. This is enabled by a continued focus on the use of submarines and major surface combatants, and, in the future, our air-warfare destroyers. Operating in the amphibious environment with land forces with our soon-to-be-introduced amphibious assault ships will allow us to respond to any shore-based contingency when required.